


changes in the shadow you never turn about to see

by Lalagant



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, Grass Chunin Exams Preparation Spar, Nara Shikamaru POV, Nara Shikamaru's Very Low Opinion of Uchiha Sasuke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29233416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalagant/pseuds/Lalagant
Summary: Nara Shikamaru has protected his twin sister in his shadow all his life.
Relationships: DoS Team 10, Nara Shikako & Nara Shikamaru
Comments: 7
Kudos: 109
Collections: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2020 C (Winter Round!)





	changes in the shadow you never turn about to see

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scoobiedoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scoobiedoo/gifts).



The Chunin Exams come again, on time, on expectation, on plan. Shikamaru knows. It’s his role to know, to plan, to think. The weight of centuries of expectation and tradition, more familiar than his clothes with the weight of the clan mon. Shikamaru feels like the news is a sucker punch out from an unexpected direction anyways. He isn’t summoned with his team to the Hokage’s office. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t know. He knows; he’s expected this, predicted things, planned, and acted. He hears what he expects to hear. He sees his teammates interact with his sister. (He’s glad. Glad she isn’t going to be near her own faithless, dangerous teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, breaker of his sister’s ribs. Chouji and Ino, already told, already prepared, already going to protect his little sister: just as he would; just as he couldn’t trust her own team to do. According to plan, his, and his father’s. Uchiha Sasuke will not hurt his little sister again. Shikako is too dutiful, too bound by her oath, but Shikamaru and his father both have greater oaths and duty to her.)   
It’s still worse to watch her fight. Asuma-sensei starts the spar. Uchiha Sasuke, the untrustworthy, the teammate harming, starts by breathing fire at his sister, at his teammates. Shikamaru has to hold his breath and clench his fists, fighting back the urge to intervene, to go, to plan, and to protect his sister.   
He can only stand here on the sidelines. Later, later when this isn’t practice anymore they’ll be in an entirely different country and he’ll have nothing he can do then even if he can do something now. So he stifles the impulse, the need to intervene, and begins to think, to plan.   
Shikako doesn’t fight like how he would fight. Shikako doesn’t direct as he would. Ino and Chouji need a plan. He, Shikamaru, should be there directing his team, and protecting his sister.   
Then Shikako takes a risk—directing enemy attention at herself, Shikako what—and suddenly a pillar of stone is falling down upon the battlefield.  
Uchiha Sasuke yelps.   
(Shikamaru would really like more of Uchiha Sasuke yelping, please all kami.)  
Shikako just managed the equivalent of incredibly high-rank doton. It changes the battlefield, lets her use other tactics. It’s an unexpected but useful choice. Not something that any but jounin would be able to manage with ninjutsu.   
His sister uses the ensuing cover to change the course of the battle. She takes to speeds he hadn’t known she could reach—and she pushes Uchiha Sasuke back with the force of threat she represents.   
Shikamaru knows, then, that his plans are flawed.   
Shikako changes the tide of battle, decisively, quickly.   
Shikamaru watches, memorizing, analyzing.   
He hadn’t known. He hadn’t planned for this. He hadn’t thought of this.   
It’s not such a grand thing in the scheme of the world, especially when ninja are constantly training. It’s not such a grand thing to not know what another ninja is capable of. It’s not such a grand thing, but this is his sister. His little sister, his twin, the one who followed him and hid behind him. The little twin sister he needs to protect.   
By the time the spar ends, Asuma-sensei’s bland tone belying the demonstrated ability gap of the members of Team 7 and the two other best genin teams in Konoha, Shikamaru has new information to think about, to plan with, to know. 


End file.
